Ideas, where do they come from? Sometimes it's hard to tell, other times not so hard. I thought I would share a little about my own inspirations, the things that helped influence and shape my stories.

My art is usually a lot simpler. I just get some random idea out of nowhere and draw that, and sometimes it ends up as something entirely different than I imagined. Fiction is a different beast entirely, though.

Starting with the recent ones, I have to admit that I have no clue where the idea for "Pinkie Prefers her Pasta Plain..." came from. I think it started with the title, though where that came from is a mystery. I do, however, know where the inspiration for Nightmare Sonata came from, and it is this lovely picture:



I saw that a while ago and immediately thought, what if that was Lyra in that bed? No idea why, but I just knew I had to write that story.

While writing the last part, with the little rhyming bits, I sought inspiration in a song which always put me in mind of nightmares, Late Night, Red Wine Blight by Enslavement of Beauty (warning, black metal, and sadly I couldn't find an official or live video, I don't even think they play live)

If you listen to the song or read the lyrics, you just may recognize parts of the refrain:

Sweetest dearie
Mother Mary
Ramble, rumble
The sanguine stumble

...

Rapping simmer
Always shimmer
Scent the quibble
Always nibble

It was helpful, even if rather a bit darker than the story I was writing.

I wrote a story a while ago, called "The Pony Who Wanted to be a Real Puppet"... not sure how many read it or remember it? Some people found it rather disturbing, which wasn't really my intention. Anyway, it was pretty blatantly based on the song by Sonata Arctica, of almost the same name: The Boy Who Wanted to be a Real Puppet (again, sadly no official or live video)

I get a lot of inspiration from music. Usually more than I do from pictures.

I've mentioned that Fillystata was inspired in part by the song Filistata by Stolen Babies (also no good video ). Mare in the Mirror, in contrast, wasn't inspired by a song in the same way. But I did find a number of songs inspiring while writing it.

Both Midnight and Manna in fact ended up having what I'd almost call theme songs.

Midnight's was Lilith Immaculate by Cradle of Filth (WARNING, extreme metal, nudity, blood and gore. The video, too, is rather fitting, though, if you can stomach the music and imagery. The last part really makes me think of Manna and the asylum)

I was randomly listening to it while writing one of the last chapters and suddenly realized just how great a fit it was for Midnight. After that I'd regularly set it on repeat when writing her parts. It provided a perfect atmosphere.

For I have been grating
And waiting so long to find
The most perfect hostess close to me
Whose thin-ice troubled mind
Was like a cracked, black ornate mirror
To slip right through in time
When at last I wore Harmonia's necklace
The cursed twin serpents mine"

...

Fall for the love of me
Crawl for the love of me
Drool for the love of my virulent sway
I grow more master the faster the days

That's practically right out of Midnight's mouth, and I didn't even notice until one of the last chapters. Shame on me.

In contrast I had Manna's theme in mind before she showed up in the story. The title says it all: Tortured Soul Asylum by Cradle of Filth (warning, extreme metal, and sadly I couldn't find a good live version so have the album version)

It was kind of a theme for the entire asylum scene, in fact, but the last part really put me in mind of Manna.

I know I've seen
Through the black backed mirrors in sanity:
Lucent prides amassed in last retreat,
Prurient souls but no more freaks
Than those leashing dreams at harm's length from Me.
And just like grim ascension prophecies,
My revenge, carved deep, will be
A grisly plot that reads,
Like my filthy white ward spattered with their screams.

When My Deviliverers come from fog for Me...

... Please come for me...

Exhuming the moon,
Through the bars in My room.
The sooner the bitter pills swallowed are through.
But no Genotypes, Aphrodites, Demon archetypes,
No Cenobites rise to claim me for you!

No! No! No!
Don't leave here in this storm weathered cell!
No! No! No!
With prophets and losses,
And dead men from crosses,
My fate is a preview of derelict Hell!

Damn, how I wish I could write like that! You may have got the impression that I get a fair bit of inspiration from Cradle of Filth, and you wouldn't be wrong. I've been a fan of them for something like 15 years and I still listen to their music constantly and find something new in there, even though I've heard them all a thousand times or more.

Anyway, that part above always teared me up. It's so powerful (on the album, at least. The live version I found was rather feeble at that point).

Mare in the Mirror, the story as a whole, sort of had a theme song too. Actually, I mentioned the Alice songs by Stillste Stund when I first began writing it. I wouldn't call them theme songs, but they did seem appropriate listening early on. I believe there are four of them:

Alice I: Spiegeltanz
Alice II: Nie Allein Mit Dir
Alice III: Schwesterherz
Alice Nekrolog

Don't ask me about the lyrics. I also really don't know how to characterize Stillste Stund. They're fairly obscure, I think (just like Stolen Babies and Enslavement of Beauty above). Wikipedia suggest electronic, avant-garde darkwave, which I suppose is as good a description as anything.

I think the hauntingly beautiful Creatures that Kissed in Cold Mirrors also by (surprise, surprise) Cradle of Filth, is a better fit as a theme, though. It's instrumental and, I think, something anyone can stand listening to (unlike the majority of CoF's work, which most people probably don't see the beauty in)

And that's about it. Lots of other music, of course, but these are the ones that very specifically inspired me. Most other music just provides background atmosphere.

So what inspires you?